Thirty Days at Freddy's
by FoggyFriday
Summary: Mike is dead, murdered. None of the other animatronics seem to know why, but according to Foxy, this was more than a usual night guard death. Good thing company policy states a night guard won't be reported missing until everything has been bleached clean. That leaves four animatronics and thirty days to solve all the mysteries at Freddy Fazbear's Pizza. (T for some gore/violence)
1. Chapter 1

The day of entertaining children was over, three animatronics were lying dormant on the show stage. As the doors closed on the ancient relic of a restaurant, the previously limp robots began to move.

"Freddy?" The yellow chick murmured to a humongous brown bear.

"Yes?" He replied sweetly, knowing it was better to just play along with her.

"I can't sleep." She moaned.

The purple bunny slumped over on her left spoke up, "You don't sleep, none of us sleep. Stop asking the same thing every night, you ditz."

"You know you said the same thing to her last night, Bonnie." Freddy remarked.

"Well, it's not my fault she has the programming of a four year old." Bonnie snarked, to Chica's dismay.

"That's kind of mean." Freddy hinted at a smile as Chica nodded confidently, glad that Freddy was taking her side.

"Ugh, why don't you two get married already." Bonnie pouted, "Freddy, you're already dressed up." He gestured to the small top hat attached to his costume.

"People who live in glass houses, Mr. Bowties-Are-Cool." Freddy looked to Chica for a giggle, but she had already moved on to something else.

"I'm hungry." Chica blurted out.

"We don't ea—you know what, go ahead Chica, the door's that way." Bonnie decided not to bother, smiling slightly about how she was going to short circuit herself one day in cheese and tomato sauce.

Chica creaked the heavy metal door closed as she left for her usual stomping ground.

"Why does everyone always listen to you anyway?" Bonnie groused.

"'Because I be the oldest.'" Freddy mimicked.

"Don't even remind me." Bonnie snapped with immense disdain. "It's a good thing you waited until Chica left to make that crack. How is she supposed to forget if you keep bringing it up?"

"Aw, don't worry so much, Bonnie, you're pretty uptight for a kid." Freddy continued, elated at the steam beginning to pour out of Bonnie's long ears.

* * *

><p>Chica had stopped to gawk at the childish fan art plastered to the walls. It was hard to see in the dark, but she could make out the figures of she, and her friends, Bonnie and Freddy, waving at children while Bonnie strummed his red guitar. As she worked her way down the hall, she came to a drawing of a tall, gangly animatronic with sharp teeth and a gleaming hook. She realized she hadn't seen her old friend, Foxy, in a while, and debated visiting him, but she knew Bonnie always got his ears in a tangle if she so much as brought him up. Even easygoing Freddy would get pretty worked up if she was caught in Pirate's Cove. She sometimes wondered why they didn't like him so much, they used to be such good friends, and they were programmed to be a team, after all. He was a little bit nutty, but he was a great storyteller, even the children loved his tales of adventure on the Seven Seas.<p>

Just then, Chica heard a bang, like metal on metal, but didn't think anything out of the ordinary, as she knew it was just Foxy, bothering the night guard. Chica had already decided she didn't feel like getting into trouble for sneaking into Pirate's Cove, but what if she just 'ran in to him' at the guard's office, then the others couldn't yell at her for 'accidentally' seeing him. Feeling sufficiently diabolical, she made her way to the kitchen, and then the hallway right outside the door. She looked in the window and saw something odd, Foxy was on the opposite door, banging on it repeatedly. He seemed urgent. Chica couldn't make out anyone inside the office, though, she usually couldn't. She often came to visit the security guards, sometimes bringing harm, and sometimes just visiting. Freddy and Bonnie had always advised her to fear them, to attack first and ask questions later. However, Foxy, even though he wasn't above attacking someone he believed had less than pure intentions, had taught her to observe silently. Chica had become fairly good at slipping in and out quickly and quietly, and if she wanted to, she could even mess up the button controls for one unlucky sap without anyone being the wiser.

"Bzzzt."

The buzz of every electronic shutting down at once sounded as the barrier between Foxy and his goal dissipated. He had no choice at this point, he needed the help of the others, whether he liked it or not.

* * *

><p>All the way at the other end of the building, lay a resting Freddy. He preferred to stay in his comfy show stage all night, and only ever roamed around when he felt like it, or at least, that's what he told the others. Maybe it was because he was lazy, or maybe he was afraid. Though, the only secret fear he would admit to himself about having, was…<p>

"Bzzzt."

Speak of the devil. For a second, he panicked, the feeling of being surrounded and devoured by the blackness like piranhas consuming their prey in painful bloodbath lasting only a few seconds petrified him. However, once he managed to calm himself down, the feeling soured into annoyance. If there was only one thing Freddy disliked about most night guards, it was that they were so clumsy with power. He swore that he would be driven insane by now if it weren't for his special feature. Freddy had never stopped to wonder why a daytime operating bear had a built in night-light, for whenever he needed it, he was far too relieved to waste time looking a gift horse in the mouth. Of course, once his face began to light up, it was time to begin making sure Bonnie and Chica were okay, and maybe take out his anger on the night guard. Even though he already didn't have a very high opinion of night guards to begin with, there was nothing that made his outlook towards a particular guard drop like a stone more than turning out the lights.

He stomped down the corridors as fast as he could, unknowing that a certain fox was expecting his arrival. As he turned into the doorway, his headlight fell upon a strange situation. Foxy and Chica, feeling around in the dark, empty room, and something else on the ground.

A bloodstained body, wearing a night guard's uniform.


	2. Chapter 2

Foxy grinned, lucky that Freddy had his glowing eyes already fixated on the room, and he wouldn't need to ask for help. The smile was short lived, however, as he met what Freddy was staring at.

Foxy creaked down to his metallic knees in shock, wondering what could have happened. He knew it was only a matter of time, of course, he had known that from the beginning, no one ever lasted long here. He turned to Freddy and Chica, who were staring at him, wondering what he would do next.

"Did ye do this, or was it that Bonnie lad?" Foxy asked calmly, trying not to anger his only light source.

"What? I just got here, and you're the one that drained all the power with your incessant banging, even if he was alive I would've killed him. You know how I feel about turning the lights off." Freddy seethed, the last sentence turning out more like a whine than he had intended.

Foxy knew it would be pointless to try to reason with him now, but he had to try, he couldn't wait until day to examine the body.

"I… I'm sorry." Foxy mumbled, hoping he would get across to the furious bear.

It had been a long time since the last 'sorry' Freddy had heard from Foxy. Since when do enemies say 'sorry'? Then again, Foxy wasn't really an enemy anymore than the night guard was, he was just a…hazard. He always told himself he'd been looking out for Bonnie and Chica when he told them not to visit Pirate's Cove anymore. Even as he was now, he was still a hazard, and Freddy had the suspicion that this all had something to do with his crazy theories, of which he had no intention of aiding in.

"Okay, fine, but I swear, if this has anything to do with your stories, I'm turning it all off." Of course, he didn't really mean it, he had no intention of spending any more time than he needed to in the dark.

"Thank you, Freddy." Chica, who had been silently waiting for Freddy to calm down, tip-toed over to the body to help Foxy.

"Um, Chica," Chica smiled sheepishly, hearing her name. "I haven't forgotten about you, and I haven't forgotten about Bonnie either." Freddy purred. "Why don't you go make sure he's not getting into trouble."

"Yessir!" Chica saluted, and scurried off before Freddy could change his mind about letting her off the hook, and before she could realize she was walking straight into pitch black darkness.

The night guard's body looked like it normally would on the job, light blue uniform, cap, and clip-on name tag with "Mike Schmidt" scrawled across it. The only thing really out of the ordinary was the blood and look of fear on "Mike's" face. Foxy gathered Mike in his arms and heaved him over onto his stomach, revealing an open wound on his back from which the blood had flowed.

"You don't know how close to morning it is, we need to get this one a suit." The implications if a body was found instead of 'missing' were far too great to risk, especially just so Foxy could prod it for no reason.

"Aye, Freddy?" Foxy looked up from the corpse. "Does this lad look familiar to you?"

"Of course, most of the night guards visited us as kids, that's why they got the job in the first place." Freddy explained. It was kind of a depressing thought, how such cute children could grow up into night guards of all things.

Foxy shot Freddy a 'Not What I Meant' look, and continued his investigation.

Freddy was getting more and more anxious with each passing minute, it was getting fairly light out, any second he would see the sun stream in though the windows, followed by the sound of the manager clicking the keys into the door and turning, plus that obnoxious…

Alarm clock!

Freddy remembered the company alarm clock in the security office, set to the sounds of children applauding. If he could get his paws on that, he would at least have some indication of when it was time to shoo Foxy out of there and make a mad dash for the supply closet. Freddy surveyed the filthy desktop, and began digging as fast as he could

"No...no...no." He mumbled as he tossed away stacks of paperwork and crayon drawings. "Seriously, a cupcake?" he opened one of the drawers under the table, and grasped a hard, rectangular object, success! Or it was, before he saw the glowing numerals spelling out "5:50am"

"Foxy!" Freddy groaned, grabbing his barely covered shoulder firmly and shaking. A little bit of the remaining fabric tore off, causing Foxy to glare at him. Foxy's brief pause was just enough time for Freddy to shove the clock in his face.

Foxy looked anxiously at the body, hoping he found everything there was to find, which wasn't very much. He was absolutely sure the guard was long dead, but something didn't seem right. Why were the doors closed? And why wouldn't the killer put his victim in a suit instead of leaving him to rot on the ground? The biggest question Foxy had in his mind was why his face gave him such a strong feeling of déjà vu. Though, he already had his suspicions about that one.

Freddy forced Foxy to carry the body while he lead the way, they made it to the back room in good time, mostly because they both frantically forced the body in, no time to be neat. Of course, they had all done this before, so it wasn't that hard. Foxy winced as the body was mutilated by the multitude of cross wires in the suit, hoping he would be able to remember that face, because that was the last time he was going to be able to see it.

A joyful sound rang out, children cheering. A sound that struck fear into the circuits of both animatronics, because it meant two equally bad things.

Management was about to come waltzing in for their daily check up.

And Freddy had brought the clock with him, concrete evidence that he had been acting outside his programming, that is, if management noticed it's disappearance.

It wasn't that far a walk from storage to the stage or the cove, but their was just a little bit more prepping to be done to the body before it was ready to be hidden.

"G-goOoo on, M-matey." Foxy whispered, or at least tried, his whisper had been destroyed a long time ago, even his lowest volume setting was beginning to sound a little wonky. Foxy knew if he left Freddy to tend to the body, he wouldn't be able to make it back, he was the fastest out of all of them, and there wasn't much else to do but find a good spot to place the suit.

"I'll do it, it's fine." Freddy tried to sound calm, but really, he was absolutely terrified. He could already see himself being discovered and suffering a fate worse than death like he had told himself over and over again for years. He honestly would rather let Foxy take the fall for it anyway, after all, it was his odd behavior that started all this in the first place. Why didn't he want to let him do it anyway? He was confusing himself, again, and it was things like that that worried him. Ever since the old place, he had sometimes worried that the voice in his head wasn't always his own.

Foxy had no time to argue with him, he had forgotten how illogical Freddy could be. He thought Freddy would at least have a chance to finish if he took off that moment. He could practically hear the sound of the door creaking open already. He simply nodded and flew out the door.

Freddy lumbered over to the suit and placed a couple endoskeletons and a broken Bonnie suit over it, he stuffed the clock inside the Bonnie suit, as well, thinking it would be too risky to bring it with him to the stage.

* * *

><p>The manager of Freddy Fazbear's Pizza strutted down the hall, clipboard in hand, looking especially 'business-y' for no one in particular. She was preparing to check on the show stage to make sure everyone was in their proper place, partly because she didn't particularly like Freddy, in fact, she despised him. Once upon a time she was a bright-eyed night guard who was lucky to survive with her life…and a couple scars. Freddy had been the bane of her existence during her employment, no way was this scarily aggressive animatronic just malfunctioning, it was out for her blood, for sure. In fact, this one time…<p>

A crash resounded through the hallways, cutting off her thoughts, and sounding like it was coming from the direction of Pirate Cove. The manager immediately shifted into her fighting stance, bracing her body like her instructor had told her many nights ago. In hindsight, she realized, karate wasn't going to do much against manic robots.

…and that's why she took up Tae Kwon Do, instead, obviously.

She chased the sound down the corridors to Pirate's Cove, completely forgetting about her supposed revenge on a long time foe, and running with the swift of a Foxy, and the cunning of a…Chica? No. She made a mental note to fix that simile later.

She stepped silently into the Cove, arms stiff and poised in case he jumped out at her. She approached the curtain, and with one swoop, tore away the drapes hiding the mischievous fox.

"Oh, phew." She exhaled as she spotted Foxy in his rightful place. According to their programming, they were supposed to return to their starting places at six for check up.

As soon as the titular manager left, Foxy, too, sighed with relief, hoping Freddy had made it back by now.


	3. Chapter 3

"I'm scared, Bonnie." Chica whispered to Bonnie, trying to stay perfectly still for morning.

"What, are you afraid Foxy bit his head off?" Bonnie quipped.

"That's not funny, OR true." Chica looked around anxiously. "Do you think he's gonna come soon?"

"He'd better, or that manager lady's gonna have a field day." Bonnie said, partly joking and partly worried.

"Bonnie?" Chica inquired. "Can you tell me a story?"

"Who do you think I am, Foxy? Why don't you go outside and ask him, if you want to hear his lunacy so badly." Bonnie bitterly commanded.

"Foxy's nice, why don't you like his stories?" Chica wondered. "My favorite is about Chica the human girl, who got turned into a duck!"

Bonnie cringed. "That's why." He answered. "You know those stories aren't true, right?"

"Of course, I'm obviously a chicken!" Chica laughed, "Or…wait… Bonnie, am I chicken, or a duck?"

Bonnie shrugged. "These are the tough questions, my friend." He was slightly glad Chica was already getting off topic, even if he had to explain to her, she wouldn't understand, anyway, she couldn't understand. Deep in his mind, he hoped Foxy had spared Chica the gory details of his story, the fantastic tale of how humans could somehow become animatronics…by dying inside them. It was a couple years after they had been reactivated, after the old place, that Foxy began telling them of a supposed 'past life' he swore he used to live. It was around then they also found out what Foxy did. Bonnie hadn't talked to him at all since. He was afraid for his own well being, as well as Chica's, after all, he could never trust an animatronic who would hurt a child, right?

Soft, padded footsteps became louder and louder as the last animatronic lumbered in for check-up. He didn't have time to chat, for he was sure the manager was on his tail.

"AHA!" She sprang through the doorway, a mix of relieved and disappointed this wasn't the day the animatronics threw away their programming, becoming the catalyst for a bionic uprising. She approached Bonnie first, keeping her eyes on the clipboard. "Good morning, Bonnie."

"Good morning, kids!" Bonnie replied, with enough ham to feed an average adult human for a week.

"Chica, today is my birthday." The manager spoke in a surprisingly calm monotone.

"HAPPY BIRTHDAY!" Chica awkwardly patted the manager's head, her head being much taller than one typical of a child. "Ask your parents for pizza in the pizzeria, cheese pizzas are only 19.99 plus tax, but you can get ten percent off if you tell 'em Chica sent you!" Chica chirruped, the same way she had for years. The manager marked a space for Chica

"Freddy…" The manager approached him, shooting him a steely gaze as she continued her question. "…I'm sad." She braced herself.

Freddy wrapped his furry arms around her and squeezed firmly, but not too tightly. He'd been given years to master the art of hugging, but never had he enjoyed using his gift for evil more than when he hugged the manager.

"AHHH! Let go, PLEASE!" She screamed, being reminded of many terrifying nights sitting in the dark, hoping for six am to come soon.

Freddy pretended not to hear her. "There, There." He soothed in his calming robotic tone. When he began to hear muffled cursing, he knew it was time to release her.

"God, Freddy! I know you're just screwing with me, so you can stop pretending to be deaf, now!" She scolded him. In reply, Freddy simply stared blankly, as if to taunt her.

"Hey, are you talking to the animatronics, again?" A voice came from down the hallway, more employees were coming in to get the place open for business.

"We'll continue this later..." She looked disapprovingly.

* * *

><p>"'Mornin', Ariana." The daytime guard greeted.<p>

"Hmph." The manager mumbled.

"Well then…" He started to return to work.

"Why don't we just get rid of them?" She groused.

"Pardon?" He was unsure if she was talking to him or herself.

"The animatronics, duh." She took a breath, signifying the beginning of a rant.

"You know that's not what he would have wanted, don't you have any respect for the dead?" He berated her before she could begin. "Anyway, I'll take your check paper to the office to be filed, if you want."

"Yeah, sure." She ripped the paper off her clipboard, and pressed it into his palm.

"Hey, Ariana?" He scanned the paper over.

"Yeah?" She said as she was about to leave.

"You know you don't have to write 'possessed by demons' for Freddy every day, 'malfunctioning' works just fine." He reminded her.

"Do not doubt my words, mortal" She countered. "Let's just say you're lucky to be a daytime guard, David."

* * *

><p>David walked down the hall, papers in hand, and whistling a tune he didn't quite know the origin of. Maybe he'd heard it from a music box somewhere? Anyway, he pushed the thoughts out of his brain and continued towards the office, hoping the night guard had made it back safely. He didn't like to think about the night guards, as the restaurant had just lost one a few months ago. This night guard cared for the animatronics deeply and even helped fix them up. David had quite a bit of respect for him, though sometimes he seemed kind of crazy in the way he loved them unconditionally, even though they were thought to be the cause of the 'disappearances'. It all seemed a little bit shady to him how he kept details about the night time jobs under tight wraps to keep the animatronics from being persecuted, but he trusted his judgement completely.<p>

Too bad those same animatronics brought his end. Then again, they didn't know any better, anyway, they were just robots

David leaned into the office, hanging onto the door frame for support, like he used to do when Ariana had this job. If he could get there early and gape just right, he could make her shoot up from her chair and practically hit the ceiling.

When he leaned in this time, his fingers slipped from the frame in shock and he plummeted to the ground, inches away from the stain of bodily fluids.

"ARIANA!" He yelled, he wasn't typically a squeamish person, he couldn't be to work here, but he was just as startled as anyone to find a giant bloodstain on the floor of the office.

"What is—Oh my god." Ariana surveyed the fallen day guard and the massive stain, racking her memory for who it could have been from. "Do you remember who was working the night guard shift this week?" This was actually quite a bit more blood than normal, usually, it was all in the hallways or storage room. "It was like, Smith, or something."

"You know you could just check the punch clock." David said, not wanting to admit he couldn't remember the night guard's name either, he had never even talked to him. Now that David thought about it, the night guard had never really talked to anyone. He remembered he was kind of young, maybe high school age. That was the typical age of their non-night guard employees, young night guards would obviously pose some problems for the establishment, such as, schools and parents noticing their absence before they could do a good clean up job, not that it ever happened, though. Ariana had assured David it wasn't a problem, because he didn't go to school, and his parents wouldn't notice if he went missing. Other than that, David had never even gotten a good look at his face, but he couldn't help but feel sorry for the poor kid, he knew the only reason he was hired was because there were less and less people applying, but still, he was so young.

"Schmidt! Michael Schmidt!" Ariana paraded back into the room proudly, after sprinting as fast as she could from the punch clock and back, he had indeed not clocked out this morning at six. "Now, if you'll excuse me, I need to make some calls, you can go start guarding things." Ariana left just as abruptly, knowing she would not be seen by human eyes for a long time, lots of calls had to be made and paperwork to fill out, plus, she would have to call some guys to clean up, sanctioning off a whole area without drawing attention. She was fairly confident she could have children in the restaurant at the same time, after all, she hated closing for cleaning, it drew even more attention and lost money, especially on bigger jobs where clean up could take months. As long as she could count on David and the staff to do their jobs, she could be confident no child would wander into the office

David realized he had been sitting on the ground the whole time, and quickly stood up, scurrying off to open the doors to the waiting children.

* * *

><p>"Freddy, tell us what happened." Bonnie pestered Freddy, knowing they had little time before there program dictated walking straight out into stage area to greet the children.<p>

"I found Bonnie, see?" Chica gestured to Bonnie proudly, causing him to roll his eyes back into his head. After the power ran out, he had stumbled back to the show stage, Chica didn't really have to find him at all.

Freddy smiled. "That's great, Chica." He praised. "I was fine all night, don't worry." Bonnie didn't believe it for a second.

He motioned Freddy away from Chica. "Don't think just because Chica will fall for that that I will, too. Why were you so late? Chica was worried."

"I'm so glad you care." Freddy smirked.

"Ugh! Why do you always do this? Give me a real answer! I'd rather not see you deactivated in the morning, if that's what you mean by 'care'!" He yelled, forgetting Chica was listening a few feet away.

Freddy felt a pit in his stomach, Bonnie tended to worry himself sick over trivial things, and he often got annoyed by Freddy's jokes, but this time he was serious. "I was helping Foxy, I didn't mean to worry you." He spoke softly, refusing eye contact.

"I thought you told us not to talk to Foxy." Bonnie pouted. "You told us not to bring him up anymore, but you do anyway. I thought he was dangerous."

"He is." Freddy calmly confirmed. "I was just...helping clean up. It would be a bad situation for all of us if that guard wasn't carried back to storage." Freddy left out the part about helping him play detective, because it would be much harder to explain.

Bonnie opened his mouth, then closed it. Of course, he was still suspicious, but decided to back off, both because he didn't have anything good to say that would elicit anything other than a vague response from Freddy, and because they were almost late.

* * *

><p>David was somewhat glad for the odd design of the building, the security guard office was all the way at the back, and the show stage was the first thing seen when someone stepped inside, making it easier for him to keep nosey children out of the hallways. The animatronics stepped out right on cue and went to their positions. They were programmed to stay still until they detected children, which, probably wouldn't be entering until later in the day. There were some parties to be taken care of, and then the casual visitors, all in all, it was shaping up to be a pretty normal day. David leaned against the plaster wall, leering at the fuzzy automatons. He couldn't really look at them without feeling a pang of sadness, and thinking of his passed coworker, he remembered him mentioning Foxy was his favorite as a kid, too bad, the animatronics didn't pick favorites, they attacked every night guard all the same…It was in their...programming.<p>

David felt his eyes beginning to water, so he tugged his guard cap down, further covering his face. Not even the animatronics would see him cry.

* * *

><p>"Hey, David, I need you for just a sec." Ariana tapped his shoulder, and motioned him to follow her. Her stomach churned with the news she had, and she certainly wasn't looking forward to delivering it.<p>

"Um…you do know if I leave, the inner hallways will be unguarded." He motioned to the bevy of children surrounding them, they were right in the middle of a party, and he couldn't just leave his post.

"Good point, one moment." Ariana scrambled away and soon came back with a man in a sweat-stained undershirt, still holding a bologna sandwich. She whispered something in his ear and smiled sheepishly. He frowned, but took David's spot near the hallway openings anyway.

"Oh, one more thing." She snatched the cap off of David's head and relocated it to the man's bald head. "Perfect." She grasped David by the hand and dragged him down the hallway to her new makeshift office, in the hall right outside the quarantined security office.

"What's this about? I thought you'd be stuck making calls the whole day." David inquired, getting an odd sinking feeling.

"Um, yeah, that." Ariana stumbled. "So, you know how there are like, no people applying for night guard?" David nodded and Ariana continued. "And we can't leave the animatronics unguarded tonight?" David nodded once more, feeling slightly worried where this was going. "So I phoned some of the higher-up and asked what they thought I should do, and they ordered me to…use an emergency day guard replacement instead, we have much more of those."

"Huh?" David sputtered. "But…I'm the day guard…" He trailed off. Oh.

"I—I have good news!" Ariana reassured him. "The day guard I hired knows what he's doing, plus he was also a night guard, once. You have me, too, we'll both help you, you can call us if things get bad." Ariana tried to fake a smile, but he still hadn't said a word. "David, are you okay?"

"I'm fine. They're just animatronics, I know how you like to exaggerate." David cracked a smile, which slightly infuriated her, but also kind of made her want to laugh.

"Silly grasshopper, what did I tell you about doubting my words?" Ariana smugly noted.

"Isn't it a little early to be saying 'I told you so'? I haven't even started the job, yet." David returned Ariana's condescending tone.

"Mmhmm, and when you call me tonight at three in the morning, make sure you refer to me only as 'Grand Master Ariana'." David nodded, challenge accepted.

* * *

><p><strong>AN: Okay, some things to explain: One, I am aware that I first published this book before FNaF2 came out, I have since then, added the information to my backstory (making it even more complicated, a feat I thought I would be unable to achieve) and I have already started putting references to the second game in the chapters, plus, adding in a theory to the backstory I thought up mostly by myself, but is *slightly* based off of one I heard. Two: My update schedule, if you haven't noticed, I'm trying to keep fairly regular (I took a little while longer the week FNaF2 was released, for obvious reasons) but overall, I'm trying to release a new chapter every five days (or five nights, if you will). This is the first time I've tried to write something on a schedule, so *bear* with me (the puns never end)**

** ~FoggyFriday**


	4. Chapter 4

David carefully stepped around the tapered off area and sighed, wondering why there wasn't a back up office since these animatronics had to be watched "Every night, no exceptions." He sat down and scooted up to the desk, noticing a yellow sticky note attached to a paper bag.

"Dear David, good luck on your first night, I made you a peanut butter sandwich so you won't get hungry and try to eat the cupcake on your desk, trust me, it's a bad idea. You can still call me if you want, and remember, only close the doors when absolutely necessary. P.S. That cupcake's not even real, you WILL break your teeth. —Ariana" a couple phone numbers were listed, one he recognized as Ariana's and another was unfamiliar to him.

A long ring of a phone cut through the stale office air. "Hello? Hello?"

David froze, staring straight at the phone, one million thoughts going through his head, mostly how it was possible that he was receiving a call from a ghost, but the call continued.

"Uh, hey, listen, I may not be around to send you a message tomorrow." David shivered a bit, hearing loud banging coming from the phone.

"It's-It's been a bad night here for me. Um, I-I'm kinda glad that I recorded my messages for you" He coughed and continued on "uh, when I did."

David felt a pit in his stomach, he knew what was coming, and considered slamming the 'mute' button as hard as he could, but he felt glued to his chair, entrapped by his old friend's words.

"Uh, hey, do me a favor. Maybe sometime, uh, you could check inside those suits in the back room? I'm gonna to try to hold out until someone checks. Maybe it won't be so bad. Uh, I-I-I-I always wondered what was in all those empty heads back there." David noticed he was stuttering more than usual, indicating that they were both aware of what was coming. The peppy music box rendition of the Toreador March began to play, each carelessly plucked out note feeling like a harsh prod at an old wound. "You know…" The phone began, realizing the low moaning that was the kiss of death for every night guard, was coming from dangerously close to his right ear. "Oh no…" the sickening screech of the malfunctioning animatronics drowned out whatever he was about to say.

David sat silently for a few seconds as the recording cut off, trying to organize his thoughts and emotions, what a great way to start a first night. David decided to push these thoughts out of his mind for later and focus on not making the same mistakes of his coworker.

David thought about Ariana's note, remembering her offer, despite the grim reminder of what would become of a night guard who let the animatronics get to him, knew there was no going back now, and resolved to deal with it. He had gotten a good half a day's sleep and was extremely jittery from the 2 energy drinks he had chugged down on the way. He payed enough attention to Ariana's raving to have a basic idea of what was going to go down tonight, save power, check pirate's cove, watch out for the 'demon bear'.

He looked speculatively at the peanut butter sandwich, deciding it would probably be healthier than the whole bag of cheese puffs he had brought. He sat down in the cushy chair near the desk, and picked up the tablet. He scooped up a handful of the orange snacks and devoured them, licking the cheesy dust off his fingers. He surveyed the desk, and noticed something missing, why wasn't the clock on the desk? David pulled open the drawer to see if this "Mike" guy had put it away, but it was definitely gone. He was slightly shaken, but it didn't really matter, his phone had a built in—

He rummaged through his pockets, finding them empty, except for his car keys and wallet.

"Ugh!" He remembered leaving it to charge at home, and debated going outside the office to get it back, or at least figure out where that alarm clock wandered off to.

The sound of padded footsteps on the linoleum floors somewhere outside the office almost made him choke on a cheese puff. He kicked himself for doing something so dangerous and resigned himself to picking up the tablet, it could be three in the morning or midnight for all he knew. He switched to the show stage, noticing that Chica had already disappeared. He soon found her in the party room, so there was that, at least. No one else was moving, so he sat back and took a bite of his peanut butter sandwich. It had always baffled him how peanut butter sandwiches could exist without jelly, he wondered for a moment if Ariana had just given up halfway and settled for a 'PB'. He digressed, she could be pretty scatterbrained sometimes, but she could at least be bothered to finish a proper PB&J. Then again, maybe this was all a ploy, she did say not, under any circumstances, to try to eat the cupcake, but maybe she was using reverse psychology, and just packed the unsavory peanut butter sandwich to make the cupcake seem even more enticing…

He stared lazily up at the cupcake, thinking if it was ever used for anything other than looking creepy. He remembered being told it was held by one of the animatronics down at the old place. He wondered why they bothered keeping it, if the animatronic that held it was scrapped.

Animatronics…

His head snapped up from it's position resting against the back of the chair. Here he was calling Ariana scatterbrained, and he had just spent who knows how long day-dreaming about the likelihood of Ariana conspiring with his dentist to get him to eat a ornamental cupcake, without sparing a second thought to a certain animatronic that hated to be left alone. He drew up the cameras and tapped furiously at CAM1-C with the sinking feeling that he had doomed himself and would soon be sharing a suit with "Mike".

"Phew." The curtains weren't even open, yet.

* * *

><p>Foxy didn't feel like going outside, what's the point? His last lead was dead. He watched the curtains sway slightly in the drafty cove, moonlight and stage lights intermingled and flowed through the cracks between the curtains, being cut off with each swish of the fabric like a pendulum in a grandfather clock. Strangely, most of his distress came from the fact that the night guard was actually dead. He didn't look like a particularly optimistic soul, but he didn't need to die, he wasn't like the night guards Freddy warned him about, then again, most of them weren't.<p>

Foxy was almost positive Bonnie was the culprit, he was the only one not in the room at the time, so it had to be him. But something was off about everything, from what Foxy had seen, the night guard was stabbed in the back and left on the floor to bleed out. Bonnie and the others usually just carried a subdued night guard to the storage room for stuffing. He thought about it, and wanted to try getting into the office, but knew it was a long shot. There was no way the new night guard was going to let him in, and if he tried to explain himself, it would no doubt fall under breaking Freddy's precious programming. Then again, he really didn't care what that compulsive bear thought, anyway, with his paranoid stories of getting the whole band shut down and scrapped. He pondered sticking his snout out a little and waiting for the opportunity to move, maybe if he moved really fast…

* * *

><p>David took a few deep breathes, and smiled.<p>

"That wasn't so hard…" David whispered to himself. "I knew she was just being overly dramatic…"

David switched off the camera, then switched it back on, dropping the tablet on the floor in shock with a "clack". He picked up the device, gaping at Foxy's face poking out of the curtains.

"Oh, crap." David clutched the tablet for dear life, turning his knuckles white in the process. In addition to the pirate fox's eagerness to ram the door, the sound of pots and pans being knocked over piped in from the kitchen cam. David checked every camera, desperately searching for the animatronic rabbit and bear. He found Bonnie in the storage closet and Freddy still on the stage. This was no way to show Ariana he could handle malfunctioning animatronics, he made a silent promise to himself to do his job better, getting distracted and losing track of the animatronics could be his downfall. He switched off the camera, swiveling over to the lights and checking each side. He didn't really need to, but he hadn't all night, and who knows? There could be some mystery animatronic lurking in the hallway.

No, no. that's impossible. Maybe the best thing for a good night guard to do was sit quietly and not waste power, occasionally checking on Foxy, and keeping an eye on the other three.

David sat, wondering how far into the night he was. By this point, he was willing to settle for a sundial. He had checked Pirate's Cove a couple more times to find Foxy was still leering lazily at the camera, Bonnie had come a bit closer, but Chica was content to hang out in the kitchen doing who-knows-what. David bided his time by spinning around in his swivel chair, and seeing how fast he could make it to each door, without tripping over the big, white tarp, both as a way to relieve the extra energy the monstrous amount of caffeine he had ingested was providing him, and to practice, should he need to use the skills he was developing. He didn't need Ariana's 'training'. He was a natural, despite the total space cadet moment he had experienced a little while ago, but he was a new man now, with a resolve to be the best night guard the establishment's ever seen, or at least, best living.

David returned to his desk and checked the cameras, Foxy was still showing his furry face as if he wasn't sure whether to go or not. Bonnie had gotten around to the camera in the West Hall. Chica seemed to be wandering around pointlessly, and he was pretty sure Freddy was sleeping with his eyes open. Maybe Ariana was just unlucky with Freddy's patterns, because it didn't seem like he was that incredibly aggressive bear that she loathed tonight, now that he got a good look at him, he was kind of…adorable.

David opened the drawer with his cheese puffs in them while staring at the tablet, looking down he realized he had over-shot and opened the drawer one below the cheese puffs, he had never had very good hand-eye coordination, but really? What if he had to keep an eye on a animatronic and wanted cheese puffs? He promised to practice that as part of his training later, then again, he really wasn't in a completely sane state of mind, so he decided to allow it.. He shut the drawer and surprisingly, the sound of things knocking around inside was heard. He opened the drawer again and peered in, there were numerous pill bottles stuffed inside the empty drawer. Intrigued, David pulled the drawer out fully and began to examine the contents, every pill bottle was completely empty, but the labels on them read things like "Schizophrenia" "PTSD" and even some "Anti-Depressant" medication, but printed on every bottle were the words "M. Schmidt".

David discerned that they probably belonged to the previous night guard, he cleaned out the drawer and laid them out on the table to be gotten rid of later, Mike obviously didn't need them anymore. He noticed an odd bottle in the pile, there was something inside, hidden by the distorting orange window.

He screwed open the cap and a scrap of paper fell out onto his lap. In black ink scrawl "it would be worth it." all the words around the paper this scrap once belonged to were cut off...creepy. He put the scrap back into the bottle and set it away from the pile.

* * *

><p>Bonnie couldn't stand being near Freddy tonight, he needed to get out and blow off some steam. Killing a night guard always relaxed him, but that was something that Foxy and Freddy always used to argue about, sometimes he and Freddy would even argue that way with Chica. She was becoming more and more like Foxy every day, but that brought unfortunate implications to Bonnie's mind that he really didn't want to think about. At least, he knew that if anything went wrong, it was his responsibility to keep Chica out of harm, just like it was Freddy's. Of course, there was no way he'd lose the only duck-en he had a smidge of authority over. Bonnie knew there was something odd going on with Freddy, he was contradicting the rules he had set himself, and no doubt lying to him. Bonnie wanted answers, and even if he couldn't ask Freddy, there was one other animatronic he could ask, but he wasn't sure he'd comply.<p>

Bonnie waited for hours in the west hallway, concealing himself in darkness, which wasn't that hard to do, since it was the worst lit area, pretty much in the entire building. In fact, Bonnie had the suspicion that Freddy preferred the East path for this reason. Bonnie didn't mind, anyway, it was actually kind of comforting, in a way, it was kind of a calming…wholesome feeling that reminded him of the atrocious lighting of the old place, it was a place that he had seen for only a couple days, but it was a place he always wanted to return to. Now that he thought about it, Bonnie wasn't sure if it was really that dark, or it was the fact that he lacked sight…and a face, at the time, so he was used to it.

Bonnie's built-in microphone detected the pitter-patter of soft, lightweight feet on the linoleum. He was aware his body was much bulkier, and he would easily be able to overpower the swift, streamlined fox. He saw the red blur coming out of Pirate's Cove and leapt out, catching Foxy off guard.

"A-arrgh!" Foxy yelped, completely ambushed, "G-git offa me, ye scurvy dog!"

"Foxy! I need your help…" Bonnie got up, holding Foxy's wrist tightly so he didn't run away.

"I-I'm tryin' ta' d-d-do somethin' important, Laddie." Foxy tried to explain, "A-and I'm certainly not gonna help ye i-if ye hold me captive like this."

"But it's about Freddy…" Bonnie pleaded, hoping the fox wouldn't continue to struggle, or worse, decide to put his needle-sharp teeth to use.

"That old salt is the l-last thing I want to be t-thinkin' about right now!" Foxy snapped, he knew full well that Bonnie had been told over and over to fear his bite, right now it would be the only thing that would scare him enough to release him. He pulled back and opened his mouth wide, lunging at Bonnie with a shrill screech. Bonnie let go and jumped back in fear. Foxy ran as fast as he could, not waiting for Bonnie to reply.

* * *

><p>Foxy felt the stale air of the restaurant become a fierce wind, rushing past him with every step. He swiftly turned a corner, seeing the light of the office and with one final step…he crashed into a thick, metal door. Argh, he cursed Bonnie for keeping him for so long, he knew he could have had a chance if he hadn't been ambushed like that. He began to bang on the door in anger.<p>

In his rage, he heard the sound of a night guard, "Foxy, stop, please!" there was fear and helplessness in his voice, that brought him a kind of sick joy, even though he really had no intension of hurting the kid, he just needed to enter the office.

"What do you want?!" Ha, he was trying to communicate, rookie mistake. Frankly, he was lucky he tried with Foxy, instead of any of the others that could care less what he wanted to say, every night guard to them was scum.

"M-MIIIKE!" Foxy screamed, that was his name, right? He read it off the name tag on his body. Foxy hoped for the one-in-a-million chance that the guard would hear him, and the even smaller chance that he would understand what he meant.

"Okay, just please leave!" The muffled voice came out through the steel door. Foxy growled, he was only pretending to hear what he said, he was already beginning to despise this one. Just then, he heard the clicking of keys, human footsteps knocking on the tiles. Foxy didn't have time to wonder why the chimes of laughter didn't play in advance, he just left as quickly as he had come, hoping he still had time.

* * *

><p>Ariana hadn't slept at all that night, waiting for David to call. She felt awful for putting her friend's life at stake, and then challenging him like that. She crossed her fingers that he would still be there. As she sauntered down the hall, she wondered if David ever felt like that. He visited her every morning whenever she had her job, even though he didn't have to come in until the place actually opened. She felt extra guilty as she realized that she had been worrying David every morning for years, and he had come to greet her every day with a smile…hoping he wouldn't be smiling at a corpse. He did the same for her replacement, but things didn't work out so well with him.<p>

After that, he decided not to visit the night guards anymore.

Ariana realized she was standing in the center of the hallway in her own world. She picked up the pace and prepared her smile for David, ready to pretend nothing in the world was wrong.

* * *

><p>David listened closely, before carefully opening the door and sighing with relief that the manic fox was gone. He felt incredibly lucky that he heard the screeching noise and realized Foxy was on the move. That fox had knock down almost all of his power, he was done for. He swore he had said something that sounded like "Mike" like he could really understand what he was saying, and then after he promised to help…he left. He realized he was in quite a pickle, making a promise he had no idea how to fulfill, and if he didn't, he knew he'd be in for it tonight.<p>

What was he thinking? They didn't hold grudges, he was starting to sound like Ariana. He looked around the room for a solution to his problem anyway, and saw something that would surely solve his predicament.

Suddenly, something leaned in through the door. By instinct, David curled up in his chair, terrified that Foxy had returned, he grabbed one of the pill bottles to use as ammo.

"Good morning, Sunsh—" Ariana dodged the flying bottle expertly. David looked up, hearing Ariana's voice, thank God. He uncurled himself and stood up.

"Uh…hi." He waved sheepishly.

"Did you have a nice first night? I noticed you didn't call me." Ariana still had that uncanny smile plastered to her face.

"I was fine, Freddy didn't even bother me at all." David smiled confidently, as Ariana's grin faltered.

"Oh…I guess you don't need my help, then." She felt partly defeated and partly proud that David could manage on his own, after all, when she started, she hadn't been given any guidance other than a "go get 'em". Then again, she hadn't been plopped straight into the fourth night like he was.

David looked stricken "No, no, I didn't mean that!" He waved his hands wildly, making Ariana giggle.

"It's okay, I won't make you call me 'Grand Master', I promise." She assured him. "Also, why did you make such a mess in here? And why are there pill bottle all over the table?"

"Oh, yeah." David trailed off "They're Mike's, he left them here."

"I'll send someone to clean them up, later." Ariana mumbled. "Are you going home? You should go get some sleep."

"Wait...If you're going to go check on the animatronics, I could go check on Foxy for you, if you like." David offered.

"I guess you could go visit him…but I'm the only one that can possess the clipboard." She warned him.

* * *

><p>Foxy slumped against the wall in the backstage of his cove, thinking of the little twerp inside the office and the bigger twerp that kept him from making it in time. He heard the manager's footsteps down the hallway and he tried to stay perfectly still despite the anger churning inside him.<p>

"Foxy?" The voice was male, sounding like the night guard. The curtains fell apart and he approached.

"Hey, I-I'm sorry we got off on the wrong foot tonight." He said, despite sounding like a crazy person to anyone watching from the outside. Foxy stayed perfectly still. "I…um…have something for you." He continued, placing something cold and plastic into his metal claws. He left soon after.

* * *

><p><strong>AN: Ugh, I'm sorry for completely betraying my schedule...I had serious writers block and I have realized that I may have been biting off more than I could chew with a 5 day deadline. (I got the second chapter done in 5 days, so I thought I could do all of them) Maybe I'll return to a schedule some day, but for now I will update when I update (I PROMISE, it won't be obscenely late like this one) I wrote a super long chapter this time, so I hope that makes up for it.**

**P.S. Happy Holidays! :)**


End file.
